Browse the Collection

With over 15,000 works of art and objects, the collection ranges widely in date, materials and techniques, and places of production. Waddesdon is especially renowned for the quality and depth of its French 18th-century collections, particularly furniture, porcelain and textiles. The passion for this period in French art, shared by the various members of the Rothschild family who were and are associated with the Manor, extends to other areas such as books, drawings, paintings, clocks, architectural elements, sculpture and costume accessories. The collections of 18th-century British portraiture and 17th-century Dutch paintings are also significant.

The collection is divided into 12 categories. Some represent specific object types (Books) while others are classified by medium (Glass). At present, only a fraction of Waddesdon’s collections are online, but more objects are being added on a regular basis. To see a representative selection of important works drawn from all the categories, go to Highlights.

Predominantly sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European swords, daggers, firearms and powder-flasks with an emphasis on ornate decoration. Pieces from the collections of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henri II of France.

Superlative bindings by leading craftsmen characterise the collection of 800 mainly French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century books, many with illustrations by important artists and engravers and with illustrious provenances. Smaller collection of sixteenth-century illuminated manuscripts.

A large collection of French eighteenth-century clocks by leading clockmakers with cases by important cabinetmakers and bronze casters, mostly in working order. Some earlier German examples. A famous musical automaton in the shape of an elephant and several smaller examples.

A wide-ranging collection with an eighteenth-century French focus. Significant collection of 600 eighteenth-century European buttons in a variety of materials. Venetian, Brussels and Alençon lace of the seventeenth , eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Fans and some items of clothing.

Major collection of French furniture spanning the eighteenth century, by leading makers, including important royal pieces, mainly by Riesener and furniture with Sèvres porcelain plaques. Other eighteenth-century pieces from Turin and Augsburg. nineteenth-century seat and servants’ furniture.

Late eighteenth-century royal silver dinner service by Auguste, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century silver and silver-gilt Kunstkammer objects including rare auricular cup by van Vianen, early eighteenth-century German pieces, some by Dinglinger and Permoser, Renaissance jewellery, antique coins.

Sculpture in the house is predominantly eighteenth-century by prominent French sculptors: Caffieri, Pajou, Pigalle, Lemoyne, Falconet, Marin and Clodion. Outside, eighteenth-century French, Italian and Flemish figures and vases as well as contemporary sculpture.

Over 1,500 mainly French eighteenth-century architecture, ornament and design drawings, as well as some landscape and figural works by noted artists. Collection of over 700 eighteenth-century trade cards (advertisements). Prints relating to the French Revolution. Board games.